f course, yes; he would have come and wept out his secret on your
bosom. Oh, you simpleton--you simpleton! Anyone can deceive you and take
you in like a--like a,--aren't you ashamed to trust him? Can't you see
that he humbugs you just as much as ever he pleases?"

"I know very well that he does deceive me occasionally, and he knows
that I know it, but--" The prince did not finish his sentence.

"And that's why you trust him, eh? So I should have supposed. Good Lord,
was there ever such a man as you? Tfu! and are you aware, sir, that this
Gania, or his sister Varia, have brought her into correspondence with
Nastasia Philipovna?"

"Brought whom?" cried Muishkin.

"Aglaya."

"I don't believe it! It's impossible! What object could they have?" He
jumped up from his chair in his excitement.

"Nor do I believe it, in spite of the proofs. The girl is self-willed
and fantastic, and insane! She's wicked, wicked! I'll repeat it for
a thousand years that she's wicked; they ALL are, just now, all my
daughters, even that 'wet hen' Alexandra. And yet I don't believe it.
Because I don't choose to believe it, perhaps; but I don't. Why haven't
you been?" she turned on the prince suddenly. "Why didn't you come near
us all these three days, eh?"

The prince began to give his reasons, but she interrupted him again.

"Everybody takes you in and deceives you; you went to town yesterday. I
dare swear you went down on your knees to that rogue, and begged him to
accept your ten thousand roubles!"

"I never thought of doing any such thing. I have not seen him, and he is
not a rogue, in my opinion. I have had a letter from him."

"Show it me!"

The prince took a paper from his pocket-book, and handed it to Lizabetha
Prokofievna. It ran as follows:

"SIR,

"In the eyes of the world I am sure that I have no cause for pride or
self-esteem. I am much too insignificant for that. But what may be so to
other men's eyes is not so to yours. I am convinced that you are better
than other people. Doktorenko disagrees with me, but I am content to
differ from him on this point. I will never accept one single copeck
from you, but you have helped my mother, and I am bound to be grateful
to you for that, however weak it may seem. At any rate, I have changed
my opinion about you, and I think right to inform you of the fact; but I
also suppose that there can be no further inter course between us.

"ANTIP BURDOVSKY.

"P.S.--The two hundred rouble